Guild of the Platinum Dragon

Tarian's Diary - Entry #2

Northern Wilds - Alarik the Red

“Vizigarda asked for us personaly. This is going to be good.” And, oh, how right I was!

Let me start with an introduction (again). My name is Tarian Welden, and I’m a half elf who channels his magic trough music, or sounds in general. It’s a pretty fun thing to do. We arrived at the Platinum Dragon Inn earlier then usual this year. I was pretty glad actually, as I wanted my to improve my coat (or cloak, if you will). Anyway, the reason for such an early arival home is a request from a high positioned barbarian. Let me start from the beginning.

I was sitting in the Inn, drinking the usual magically wine-flavored ale. So, at one point, a dwarf called Benito called some of us upstairs, saying Vizigarda herself wants to see us. The one’s she invited are: Argetlam Welden, my (half) brother trained in martial arts, Elthanias, a fellow magic user and half elf (no music from him though), Dragar, a Dragonborn front-row fighter, Caelynn, a pretty, yet dangerous wood elf. She’s very sneaky from what I saw. And last but certanly not least, a mad half-orc magic user who can’t contain his powers called Krack. Oh, I forgot to list myself. A pretty colorfull combination of people.

So, we enter the room and the guild master, Vizigarda greets us. She’s sitting down, a table definitly not suited for a halfling like her in front of her. We notice two more people, a woman with very pale white skin and long red hair in braids. She wore a skin of a white (polar?) bear as a cape. With her was her bodyguard, a tall black skinned man. He started explaining the situation.

It was a tipical politic problem of inheritance and power. Let me organize what he said and what we’ve learned here. Long ago, there was a great leader named Alarik the red who united twelve barbaric nations. He was a legend, associated with one of their (semi?) Gods which was presented with the Sun. So, after he died, as goes with great leaders, his grave was hidden. We know it’s a hill like looking grave, but we don’t know the location. We have to find the ring which symbolised the unity of the nations (his beard symbolised the warriors, weird, I know). So, they tell us that everything worth something is ours in the resting place of Alarik, except the ring. We have to bring it to her so our guild gains it’s “payment”, which is actually a “unity” of sorts, a companionship between the guild and the nations.

Ofcourse, there’s a complication. There’s this guy named Klovik which seeks power and influence. He started destroying the bonds between nations, possibly even starting to make them wage war on one another. So, he went to this other guild (which I know exists because of who again, Rynn?) named The Jade Tigers. They’re typical human (they all look the same to me, even though I am half human) mercenaries.

So, a library was pointed out, one with information about the grave. The Tigers got there before us, cutting our work in half by finding the book! I mean, we did have to find them, but that was easy. (If you need help, just ask the monks!). So, they show us the book and start laughing. My brother throws a dart, making the book fly out of his hand. While the dart was flying, Elthanias managed to keep the book in the air with a spectral looking hand.

Oh, how we pissed them off! The monks started running away as the humans started introducing themselves and showing their weapons of. Not much of a problem, though. We were ready ourselves, and as the two of them started flanking us from both sides, throwing (literaly) everything they have at us. I was just in the middle when the bookshelves started to fall. I managed to escape, but Dragar and a staff wielding human weren’t. They were stuck there, fighting each other and holding the shelf. Ofcourse my brother was behind all that. I didn’t even notice he was gone though.

So, the battle was a little chaotic, one of the throwers getting hit by fire, something cold, acid and something cold again and again, I was more focused on helping my brother. I played one of our (well, first his then mine if you account for the age diffrence) child lullabies. It worked and he just punched and kicked one guy into oblivion. Caelynn was really stealthy, dissapearing and appearing behind the enemies. It was interesting, until she got knocked out. I came close to her, putting my arm on her shoulder and quietly singing, almost whispering an ancient song. She woke up, and my song was over. I also sent to sleep one (who in the meantime, while I wasn’t looking) grabed the floating book. He fell down (since he had to be in the air to hold the book) and was blasted with fire. Dragar managed to trap the staff wielding guy under the shelf, and the saber guy was ready to attack the dragonborn. The one fighting with my brother managed to land a few blows along with Dragar getting a saber cut. The saber wielding one actually started to run away after that, three of the five men unconcious, and so did the one attacking my brother.

“No one attacks my brother. No one. Especially not a sad little excuse for a creature, human” I said as I tackled the brother-attacking man. I fell on the ground with him, a book fell on his head and knocked him out. It would be ironic if that was the book we were looking for. Anyway, the other one was hunted by my companions, so I made my time interesting by carving simbols onto the one that angered me. Think of it as a goodbye gift, something he’ll remember his mistakes by. He didn’t scream though, as he was asleep. My brother denied the pleasure of killing him though. It’s good that he did, I might have succumbed to my not-so-good side and started killing everyone I wanted to.

So, that was the end of it as we interogated some of them and locked them up in the guild dungeon. We were also outcasted from the library, being destructive and what not. Typical puny peasant minds. We got what we wanted, a book and the map. After getting ready for grave robbing our mission (which includes sleeping), we entered our carriage. Prepared for a seven day trip to the West (suprising, I know. I mean, the barbarian’s live in the North) of the North. It has something to do with the Sun, but as much as the story’s interesting, I have a limited supply of ink for my diary.

We arrived at our last destination, a village nearest to the resting place of Alarik the Red. Some of my companions traded something with the villagers and Elthanias managed to get us a guide. However much I love, respect and trust my brother, this is too foreing of a place for him to show us the way. After reaching a certain point, the guide (whose name was John, a pretty odd name) stoped, not wanting to go further. He said something about a curse. Not the first time curses were mentioned in my life, won’t be the last either. Not a big deal.

There were gnolls situated on the top of the tiny little hill. Three of them, to be exact. We set up some traps (one hunting trap and a bottle of flamable oil. This is where fun begins). We distracted the Gnolls by reflecting sunlight onto them. Well, it worked and they came running towards us. Most of us were blended in, some of us (including me) were looking like trees, or parts of those trees. It was quite funny actually.

So, two of the three gnolls managed to evade the traps as the third steped just right in. The flames were ignited, the gnolls engaged. I waited until one attacked, channeling my energy and chanting a spell on the Fey language, Sylvan. I terrorized him with all I could, assuring he’ll never attack my allies again. And then, just to make it good fun, I made him hear the laughs of his friends, mocking his fear. That was the last he heard as he was killed by the arrow sent by Caelynn. The most gloriously executed kill was the one made by my brother though. He jumped from his tree, doing a double flip in the air spiraling down and hitting one of the gnolls with his elbow.

We went to the Hill, seeing the main entrance wide open. My brother went to the river near the hill, finding and catching a frog wich he later used to check for traps. Wonder if he kept it… Anyway. We checked the main enrance for traps, nothing. Playing it safe, we decided to go with the hidden entrance we found earlier. Barely managing to open it, we went trough a halway, taking a turn and seeing a room full of skeletons with weapons and shields on the wall over their heads. Twelve of them, probably Alarik’s royal guard. Of course my brother took one shield and smashed one skeleton, awaking the rest. They reminded me of legendary revenants, vengence driven undead, the red glow in their hollow eyes.

Ones that were in the room ran outside, closing the door, Dragar holding it with his shield. Argetlam locked them, and a bottle of oil splashing all across the “middle man” between us and skeletons. After a few holes were made, Caelynn and Argetlam shot few arrows inside, killing one of them. Two more bottles of oil were splashed, though inside the room trough the same holes. The fun began at the very moment a flaming bolt set started flying.

It was a glorious site as the oil set fire, the doors exploded and half of the skeletons being blown to bits. So fun playing my flute in all that chaos, helping my brother and other companions kill the rest of the bony enemies off. A few of them were slain when my brother decided to barge in. I used my magic to help him survive when he made a triple kick against the………. Smoke. He missed them all.

Anyway, the skeletons were quickly slain, and that is where I blacked out. I’m thinking of seeing a witch doctor or something. I might be possessed by some demon of sorts that is blocking my memory. I do remember seeing the black ring, though. It was the same glorious feeling of a mission well done that I had last time. I’ll end my entry here.

Oh, and if the demon is the one responsible for my memories, he might also be the one that makes me want to steal, decieve or sometimes even kill some people. I hope he’s gone soon, though. If he’s even there.